James Webb Space Telescope's golden mirror in final testJonathan Amos Science correspondent [BBC] Published 1 day ago
The technological marvel that is the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is going through final testing before being shipped to the launch site.The successor to the mighty Hubble is due to leave Earth in October to begin a new era of astronomical discovery. (...)
The European Space Agency (Esa), a key partner on the project, is providing the launch vehicle - an Ariane-5. Lift-off is scheduled for 31 October.
The days following will be exciting, and anxiety-laden. If Mars landers face "seven minutes of terror" when making the hazardous descent to the Red Planet's surface, then Webb will experience "two weeks of terror" as it unpacks all its systems on the way out to its observing position some 1.5 million km from Earth. (...)
"If we get to the point where we're starting to run out of fuel, they might be able to mount a mission to go out and refuel JWST to keep it going," Nasa project manager Bill Ochs told reporters. (...)
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57078657